Istanbul: Sirkeci

Sirkeci Station is Istanbul's terminus for trains from Edirne and Europe.
This is where the famed Orient Express ended its run from Paris, at the 19th-century Oriental’s station.
You can go by suburban train (banliyö treni) between Sirkeci and Istanbul's Atatürk Airport.
Whether you take a train or not, it's worth it just to stroll through the station and imagine the famous 19th-century luxury train pulling into Sirkeci with its eminent passengers being met by uniformed dragomans (guide-interpreters) from the great European embassies.

You may even see Whirling Dervishes here! "Contemporary Lovers of Mevlana" organizes a Mevlevi sema (whirling ceremony) each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday evening at 19:30 (7:30 pm)
Price: 25YTL

Several trains still run between Sirkeci and Edirne each day, and a few others head off to Central and Eastern Europe, but except for the Friendship Express to Thessaloniki, Greece, they mostly are slow, somewhat scruffy, and sometimes even dangerous (thieves)—for adventurers only